American Express was always very good to me, and I to them.  My Gold Card is paid off every month, and usually has a balance of $2,000 or so. I've been a good, reliable "member" since 1991.  However, last Christmas, I was in a Lord & Taylor, making a purchase of about $200 with Amex.  The clerk had to call Amex, then gave the 'phone to me.  The Amex agent told me that I had to pay $1880 to continue using the card.  I asked why, as I had just made my Gold payment days ago.  The agent just repeated his demand.  This happened after several other, recent events where a merchant had to call Amex about a "large" purchase (they never did so in the past). Anyway, I made the payment online that night.  When I returned home from vacation (was in CT), I realized that Amex had "tricked" me into paying off the entire balance of my "sign & travel" account.  I called them immediately, and an agent said "Oh, he never should have told you you had to pay the full balance..."  And they put the $1880 back on my sign & travel.  When my February bill came, the $1880 was back as due in full--*and* "past due."  I called again, this time it was much more difficult; they apparently had no record whatsoever of what had happened just a month earlier.  They kept saying "your sign and travel priveleges have been suspended; therefore we cannot move the $1880 back to Sign and Travel. I reminded them that I realized my ability to put NEW charges on S&T had been suspended for over a year, but that that didn't give them a right to make the entire balance due in full.  Anyway, after being hung up on, transferred, disconnected, etc.  Someone moved the balance back. Again.  Now, it has happened again.  And several Amex-paid automatic transactions (e.g., AT&T telephone bill) have been declined.  This time, I couldn't convince anyone; it's as if the further away from their original mistake, the easier it was for them to feign ignorance.  One agent, after telling her that I needed to speak to a S&T representative, said that they (S&T) refused to talk to me!!  After 9 days of making calls and being assured that it was taken care of--again--my card is still "suspended."  I cannot use the card--it is declined.  I have a Gold balance of $995 due in a couple of weeks.  I realize that all lenders are getting stricter these days--and screwing consumers even more with high APRs, etc.--but Amex has no reason to do this to me.  I believe they're practicing universal default, and that they see that I've been late to other creditors lately (I lost my job, but now have another).  Anyway, they used to be the coolest of creditors, never charging me for 1-2 day late payments, always investigating/suspending a charge I felt was wrong, and never, ever preventing me from using the Card, no matter what the amount.  If they're going to alienate customers like me, they are indeed in trouble.

thanks for the post

Amex is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. What is the commercial cards and services of Amex?